OUR OPINION: Mayor Carpenter must get his act straight

Friday

Aug 12, 2016 at 12:01 AMAug 12, 2016 at 7:04 AM

We hope the mayor’s new chief of staff can do him some good at Brockton City Hall. Mayor Bill Carpenter’s second term has been marred by a series of missteps that have diminished his appeal to an increasing number of Brockton residents. We are not talking about anything criminal. There are, however, a series of things that could have been done better from the point of view of the mayor’s reputation and the city’s well-being.

Darren Duarte is the mayor’s new chief of staff, an appointment announced this past week. Duarte took over that post after a one-month stint as communications director for the police department. Carpenter insisted on appointing Duarte to that position after the City Council twice refused to put up the money to pay for it and the city’s police unions told the mayor the appointment was a violation of the city’s labor contracts. In his month as communications director for the police department, Duarte did an admirable job of inserting Carpenter’s name into any number of “news” releases from the department.

Duarte is now chief of staff for the mayor, a vaguely defined job that essentially involves seeing that the mayor’s wishes are carried out and city programs run the way Carpenter wants them to run. Before coming to the jobs in Brockton, Duarte was director of public affairs for the state Department of Correction, an agency that is about as forthcoming with information as the National Security Agency. Access to people who actually make decisions and really run things was nearly impossible in the Department of Correction. We hope that does not become the practice in Brockton.

Carpenter has been the subject of some unfavorable reviews for his actions in recent months. No other mayor in Brockton history has felt the necessity of having a police driver chauffeur him around the city. At a time when the mayor and the council are hassling over police overtime, Carpenter’s police detail driver was paid at least $25,000 in overtime in the 12 months that ended June 30.

The mayor also has failed to account for his spending on seven out-of-state trips taken since he assumed office in 2014, including three to Cape Verde. There is a $5,000 line item in the city budget for out-of-state travel the mayor undertakes on city business. Again, there is no indication of wrongdoing. If the mayor collected money from that account, he simply needs to pull those receipts together and get them to the appropriate office at City Hall. That’s something a chief of staff might well be assigned to take care of for the mayor.

We are a year away from a mayoral election in Brockton. There is no reason for Mayor Carpenter to continue to make decisions and do things that make it more likely he will have serious opposition if he chooses to run again next year.

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